Home Case Index All Cases Central Excise Central Excise + AT Central Excise - 2018 (1) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2018 (1) TMI 259 - CESTAT HYDERABADClandestine removal of goods - corroborative evidences to hold against the appellant on the charge of clandestine removal - cash receipt entries pertaining to their trading activity in scrap - Held that: - the trading activity involving turnover of huge amounts and which was not an occasional business activity; hence cannot fail the memory/miss the attention of the appellants, whatever may be the circumstances they were under - the appellants also failed to prove with documentary evidence that the subject cash entries pertains to their scrap sales. No doubt, the VAT returns/some scrap purchase documents submitted by the appellants may show that the appellants were into trading activity of scrap, but these alone would not establish that the subject cash entries were related to such scrap sales and to rebut the evidence collected, without any cogent and corroborative evidence on record. Cash entries relating to M/s TUL - Held that: - there is no matching/correlation of even single entry to get convinced by the appellant s contention. Further, the documents available in record (weighment slips/register entries/etc) pertaining to clandestine clearances made to TUL, discussed in the notice, would prove beyond doubt that the appellant had the practice of clearing the ingots clandestinely, which fact not disputed by the appellant. The department had adduced evidence in the form of scrap and sponge iron (raw materials for manufacture of ingots) purchased from M/s Archana Iron Trades and M/s Sheetal Shipping respectively, as discussed at para 5.3.2 and 5.3.3. of the notice - The department cannot be expected to unearth every piece of evidence which is in the domain knowledge of the manufacturers engaged in such activity to prove the case with mathematical precision. Therefore, in cases of clandestine clearances, as the one before me, the preponderance of probabilities, in the face of evidence collected and statements recorded, the charge against the appellants held to be as proved. Shri Ramanuj Agarwal and Ambika Prasad who were the partners of the M/s Raghava Ispat had admitted the clandestine clearances and these statements were never retracted. The partners of the M/s Raghava Ispat, having admitted clandestine removals, giving details, it cannot be said these statements were given out of confusion lack of documents as they are the only persons who will be benefited by the clandestine operations. Appeal dismissed - decided against appellant.
|